1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink jet printer and, more particularly, to an ink jet printer having a wiping apparatus which can prevent ink smeared on a wiper from splashing onto the surroundings when the wiper, wiping out ink remaining on a nozzle of a cartridge, is restored to its original state.
2. Related Art
In general, an ink jet printer is an apparatus which prints text or image data on a paper by ejecting ink from a cartridge in a vapor state through a nozzle.
Such an ink jet printer generally has a printing unit and a maintenance station, and the maintenance station has a wiping apparatus wherein a wiper is installed for cleaning ink smeared on the nozzle from ink ejected through the nozzle of the cartridge. The wiper is usually made of an elastic material, and the nozzle is cleaned by the wiper as the cartridge proceeds to the right and left of the wiper.
In an ink jet printer set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,310, two wipers of different sizes are installed to wipe ink smeared on a nozzle of a cartridge, and an installed wiper portion is capable of going up and down by means of a spring. According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,310, the extent of wiper bending can be reduced to a small extent because the installed wiper portion can go up and down. However, because the restoration of the wiper by self elasticity after cleaning the nozzle cannot be controlled, the splashing of the remaining ink smeared on the wiper onto the surroundings cannot be effectively controlled.
In Japanese Patent Publication No. 9029986(Feb. 4, 1997), in order to partially overcome the latter problems, there is disclosed an apparatus which prevents ink on the wiper from splashing onto the paper by preventing nozzle cleaning when the wiper is restored in the direction of the paper when the wiper is separated from the nozzle during the nozzle cleaning by the wiper. According to the Japanese Patent Publication No. 9029986, the splashing of the remaining ink in the nozzle onto the paper can be prevented. However, the splashing of the ink in the contrary direction cannot be prevented.
Thus, according to the conventional technology, cleaning of the nozzle provided in the cartridge of the ink jet printer, or prevention of the splashing of ink smeared on the wiper onto the paper, can be provided. However, the problem of ink smeared on the wiper splashing onto the surroundings of the wiping apparatus, thus contaminating the wiping apparatus itself, cannot be prevented.
Therefore, if the ink smeared on the wiping apparatus by the wiper accumulates continuously and becomes hardened, it contaminates the bottom of the cartridge or the bottom surface of a carriage, and if the contaminated cartridge and carriage move to the paper for printing, the paper itself is contaminated.
The present invention has been completed in view of the above-described problems involved in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet printer which can prevent ink smeared on a wiper from splashing onto a wiping apparatus of the ink jet printer after cleaning a nozzle.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink jet printer having a wiper holding unit to prevent ink from a wiper from splashing onto the surroundings of a wiping apparatus by minimizing a restoration distance of the wiper itself when the bent wiper is restored during cleaning a nozzle and after completing the cleaning of the nozzle.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an ink jet printer having an operation unit for operating a wiper holding unit which holds and supports a bent-wiper during cleaning of a nozzle.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a wiping apparatus of an ink jet printer comprises: a housing having an upper part which is open; a carriage which can be moved from one side to another side in an upper side of the housing; a cartridge which is transported by the carriage, and wherein ink is stored; a nozzle which is installed facing the housing and on an outer side of a bottom surface of the cartridge, and which ejects ink from the cartridge during printing; and a wiper installed on the top of the housing and which is made of an elastic material for cleaning the nozzle. The wiping apparatus further comprises: a moving member which moves upward when moving to one side from a top of the housing under the guidance of a slant guide hole formed on a side wall of the housing, and which moves downward when the cartridge moves to another side of the housing; a locking member which moves together with the moving member, being joined axially to one side of the moving member, and which has an attaching/detaching projection attached/detached to/from an attaching/detaching groove formed on the bottom of the housing in order to maintain the elevated position of the moving member when the moving member has been elevated; a holding unit for holding a wiper by rotating in the direction of the nozzle and bending if the wiper is bent to one direction during cleaning of the nozzle; and an operation unit which operates the holding unit, the latter being provided so as to move together with the cartridge.
A holding unit according to the present invention comprises: a rotation rod whose lower part is joined axially to a locking member so as to be rotated by the operation unit, and a holding rod which supports one side of a wiper, and which extends to the wiper from the rotation rod. In addition, the holding unit comprises a restoring unit to restore the holding unit when an external force applied from the operation unit is removed. The restoring unit is constructed with a tension spring having one end which is engaged to the locking unit and another end which is connected to the rotating rod. Moreover, the operation unit includes an operation rod extending toward the rotating rod from a cartridge. One end of the rotating rod comprises a projecting portion extending toward the housing, and the holding unit is adjacent to one side of a wiper, and extends toward the wiper from a projection. Thus, the holding unit prevents the splashing of ink from the wiper by controlling the restoration operation of the wiper after the wiper has cleaned the nozzle.
A holding unit according to the present invention comprises: a rotating rod whose lower part is joined axially to a locking member so as to be rotated by the operation unit, and a holding unit which supports one side of a wiper, and which extends to the wiper from the rotating rod. In addition, the holding unit comprises a restoring unit to restore the holding unit when an external force applied from the operation unit is removed. The restoring unit is constructed with a tension spring having one end which is engaged to the locking unit and another end which is connected to the rotating rod. Moreover, the operation unit includes an operation rod extending toward the rotating rod from a cartridge. One end of the rotating rod comprises a projecting portion extending toward the housing, and the holding unit is adjacent to one side of a wiper, and extends toward the wiper from a projection. Thus, the holding unit prevents the splashing of ink from the wiper by controlling the restoration operation of the wiper after the wiper has cleaned the nozzle.